1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to identifying a location of a server and to a location server for such identification.
2. Description of Related Art
Using the Internet for exchanging data is a well-known and comfortable technique. However, attempts to obtain personal and/or confidential information for illegal or unauthorized purposes in the Internet may occur. In one method, called “phishing,” a fraudulent person or organization sends one or more e-mails including a hyperlink to a phishing web site that enables a user to enter personal or confidential information. Internet phishing web sites make people believe that they are entering a genuine official website of a corporation or another organization. These phishing websites typically accomplish this by giving their website an official look.
For this reason, security protocols such as SSL require that a server authenticate itself to a client before a connection is established. This authentication requires the transfer of a certificate from the server to a client. This certificate contains the identity of the server and is signed by a certificate authority. If the user trusts the signer, then they can also trust the server. When the SSL connection is established, a small lock icon is typically used by the browser to indicate to the user that the site is trustworthy and that all communication with it will be encrypted.
US patent application publication US 2007/0055749 A1 discloses a method and system for identifying a network resource as a phishing website. In an embodiment, a web browser receives a web page that includes a resource identifier, such as a URL, to enable a user to access the network resource. An anti-phishing module accesses the network resource and receives a network address, such as an IP-address and a port number. The anti-phishing module accesses a data base, such as an assigned name data base, to obtain ownership information, such as an owner name and country code, associated with the network address. The ownership information is examined to determine whether a network address is associated with a valid owner that is related to the source identifyier. If the network address's ownership is not trusted, a warning is optionally provided indicating that the resource identifier may be directed to a phishing site.
US patent application publication US 2003/0187949 A1 refers to a method for determining the geographic location of Internet users. The geographic location of an Internet user is determined and correlated with the Internet protocol address of the user during an active Internet session. This information is stored preferably by the user's Internet service provider, so that the Internet service can be provided to the user based on the user's location. The user's location can supplement a request for services made by the user so that the responding website or application will have additional information on which to base a reply. Alternatively, a website or application may initially seek to send messages and/or information to users within a predetermined geographic location. For locating the Internet user, the telephone number that is used by the user to gain Internet access is used for identifying the geographic location of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,975,619 B1 describes a system and method for providing host geographic location information in a packet data network. A geographic location identification system, a method for a packet data network is disclosed wherein geographic location information is provided or derived at nodes that comprise a network. Upon a request from a requesting node, the geographic location information of one or more target nodes is provided to the requesting node. The target nodes may be user access nodes and/or network routing nodes.